No love for network neutrality in the Senate

Draft legislation released by a Senate committee will impose audio and video …

When a House committee recently passed a new piece of telecoms legislation, conspicuously absent from the draft was any language enforcing network neutrality. Rep. Ed Markey's (D-MA) proposed amendment to that effect was voted down, and network neutrality supporters turned their attention to the Senate, where a committee chaired by Ted Stevens (R-AK) is drafting its own bill on the topic. There was some reason to hope that the Senate would be more receptive to network neutrality after several senators expressed approval for the idea during recent hearings.

That hope was misplaced. Stevens' committee has just released a 135-page draft (PDF) of its proposed new bill. Though chock full of different ideas and programs, the bill does nothing to enforce network neutrality (though it does direct the FCC to prepare an annual report on the subject).

After the introductory material is out of the way (the opening bit is a charge to the FCC to reduce the cost of military long-distance calls), the bill addresses the current debate over municipal broadband access (page 105 and following in the draft) by allowing cities to become broadband providers and trumping any state laws that would restrict them from doing so. The bill provides rules as to how this can work, but it does endorse the possibility of government-sponsored Internet services.

More controversially, the draft legislation endorses both video and audio flags (page 97 and following), though it does provide some exemptions for fair use. For the video flag, the bill directs the FCC to implement and oversee the technology, but it does direct the Commission to ensure that any proposed flag 1) allows consumers to transmit short television clips over the Internet, 2) allows them to broadcast digital television over a home network, 3) allows government and education users to view copyrighted content for distance learning purposes, and 4) permits the redistribution of news content. It also makes sure that any DRM or flag technology can be licensed at reasonable and nondiscriminatory rates.

The audio flag is designed to prevent excessive recording from HD radio and satellite radio. To this end, the FCC is directed to form a Digital Audio Review Board made up of members from every involved industry and the general public. The board will be an ad hoc body that has authority to draft the audio flag rules, which it will then submit to the FCC for enactment.

Finally, expect to pay more taxes, as the Universal Service Fee (USF) could soon be coming to your broadband connection. The lengthy section dealing with the USF (page 12 and following) would apply the fee to all communications services that operate faster than 200 kbps. If the bill passes, expect to see a USF charge show up on your broadband bill.

Much could change before this bill becomes law. For one thing, it's highly unlikely that anything will be voted on before November, and it's possible that the political balance of power in Congress could change in the upcoming elections. Should that happen, the House and Senate bills could change substantially. Network neutrality, for instance, is a rallying cry for many (though certainly not all) on the left, so a change in power this November could see 'Net neutrality language make a comeback. Whether that's a good thing or not remains to be seen, but with the situation in flux at the moment, now is the time to figure out where you stand on the issue and let your senators and representatives know.